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 CHAPTER VII

WORK IN STONE AND METALS

is frequently said that the whole of the New World was at the time of discovery still in the stone age. This is an unjust estimate of the metallurgic development in Mexico and Peru, but is true in a certain sense, since some stone tools were still in use even at the most advanced metallic centers. Outside the region of high culture the characterization holds and, even at the present moment, stone-age culture survives among a few outlying remnants of the aboriginal population. The gradual displacement of stone tools by trade gave opportunities for the actual observation of their fabrication paralleled in no part of the continental Old World. For, although we have from western Europe a remarkable chronological series of stone implements in which it is believed the several steps in their development can be differentiated, it is practically impossible to tell exactly how the work was done. Since we find in America somewhat analogous forms made from similar materials, the tendency has been to interpret European specimens by American data.

In Europe we find one distinction not at all applicable to our subject. Stone work there is clearly divided into two successive periods, that in which chipping alone occurs and that in which polishing predominates; while in practically all parts of the New World we find the two processes in simultaneous use. In the main, the stone industry of every social group comprises the following different methods: chipping, or flaking; abrading, or pecking; grinding and polishing; sawing and drilling.

The process used is dependent upon the materials. Thus any stone like flint, which has the property of conchoidal fracture, is flaked. While the precise manipulations seem to differ according to locality, the essential procedure is